1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotating body, a cooling apparatus that cools the rotating body, and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly relates to a cooling apparatus that cools a photoconductive drum for use in an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic printer and a copying machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photoconductive drum is employed in a conventional image-forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic printer and a copying machine. The photoconductive drum is in the shape of a cylinder that rotates about a longitudinal axis.
A charging roller and a developing roller rotate in contact with the surface of the photoconductive drum. The charging roller charges the surface of the photoconductive drum uniformly to a predetermined potential. A recording head illuminates the charged surface of the photoconductive drum in accordance with print data to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface. The developing roller applies toner to the electrostatic latent image to develop the latent image into a toner image.
When the photoconductive drum rotates, heat is generated due to the frictional engagement between the photoconductive drum and the charging roller and the frictional engagement between the photoconductive drum and the developing roller. When the surface temperature of the photoconductive drum exceeds 50° C. due to the heat generated, the potential on the photoconductive drum charged by the charging roller will decrease so that the residual potential of the illuminated surface of the drum increases. High residual potential fails to form an image with high contrast.